Our economic illness has a name: Financialization

A must read article in the May 23 Time Magazine carefully and clearly lays out how the finance sector has come to dominate, control and suck the strength and stability out of our economy while undermining capitalism and social order. See: American Capitalism’s Great Crisis

America’s economic illness has a name: financialization. It’s an academic term for the trend by which Wall Street and its methods have come to reign supreme in America, permeating not just the financial industry but also much of American business. It includes everything from the growth in size and scope of finance and financial activity in the economy; to the rise of debt-fueled speculation over productive lending; to the ascendancy of shareholder value as the sole model for corporate governance; to the proliferation of risky, selfish thinking in both the private and public sectors; to the increasing political power of financiers and the CEOs they enrich; to the way in which a “markets know best” ideology remains the status quo. Financialization is a big, unfriendly word with broad, disconcerting implications.

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Media Reviews

“An explosive critique about the investment industry: provocative and well worth reading.”Financial Post

“Juggling Dynamite, #1 pick for best new books about money and markets.”Money Sense

“Park manages to not only explain finances well for the average person, she also manages to entertain and educate, while cutting through the clutter of information she knows every investor faces.”Toronto Sun